January 10, 2011
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- If I hadn't been in the stadium on Monday night I simply wouldn't have believed it possible. The Stanford Cardinal defeated the Oregon Ducks, 45-41, in the 2011 Tostitos BCS Championship game, completing a miraculous season and earning the school's first national championship. Stanford avenged what had been the only blemish on its near perfect season, a 52-31 loss in early October, by unleashing one of the most complete and balanced offenses the college game has seen in decades.
Beginning with Chris Owusu's touchdown return on the opening kick off, the Cardinal took control of the game and never let go. Heisman finalist Andrew Luck was his usual efficient self, completing 21 of 26 passes for 291 yards and three touchdowns -- two of them to MVP Owusu -- and masterfully directing five touchdown drives. When he wasn't rifling passes into and through the Oregon secondary, Luck was handing the ball to Stepfan Taylor and Anthony Wilkerson, the Thunder and Thunder tandem that combined for 217 yards rushing and a touchdown each.
As stunning as the Stanford victory was, the path they took to the championship game -- or rather the dominos that fell to clear that path -- was even more remarkable. As late as the first week of November, optimistic fans held out hope for a Rose Bowl bid, but more realistically the Cardinal looked ticketed for someplace like the Holiday or Alamo Bowl.
The first domino fell on November 13th when TCU stumbled, dropping a 31-28 decision on the road to San Diego State and falling out of the top ten in all national polls. Thanksgiving weekend, though, was when things really started to get interesting. While much of America was either shopping for bargains or ploughing through left-over turkey, #2 Auburn lost 27-24 at Alabama in the Iron Bowl, and Boise State fell at Nevada in a triple overtime shootout, 57-55.
Suddenly galvanized by the possibility of a national championship, a standing room crowd of 50,777 packed Stanford Stadium the following afternoon as the Cardinal took on Oregon State in their final game of the regular season. Just as Nate Whitaker's opening kick off was sailing across the autumn sky, Ryan Mallett and the Arkansas Razorbacks were finishing off a moderately surprising upset of LSU, 34-24. Inspired by this news, the Cardinal faithful were raucous all afternoon as they cheered their team to a convincing 49-27 win. At 11-1 and suddenly ranked #3 in the BCS poll released Sunday evening, the Cardinal was only one step away from the championship game.
The final star aligned when Auburn lost to Steve Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks in the SEC Championship game, and Stanford found itself matched with Oregon in the BCS Championship.
Following the win on Monday night, Jim Harbaugh reflected briefly on all of this, and even found the time to dispel rumors connecting him to the vacant San Francisco 49er head coaching position. "Some people will want to discuss the serendipity of the events that led us to this moment, but I choose instead to focus on how these young men handled this moment. And let me tell you this with one hundred percent certainty -- I will be back next year, and for many years to come. With the core of players we have here right now, and the group of young men whom we expect to welcome next year and the year after that, Stanford Football is here to stay. I'm reminded of a quote from Martin Luther King: 'I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future!' These men here, these men are the future!"
And if the 49ers were disappointed by that news, imagine how the Buffalo Bills scouts in attendance felt when they heard Andrew Luck discount any idea that he might be finished with college football. "The best part of all this," said Luck, "is that I get to go back to school and start working towards next year. Plus, I've got some cool classes lined up this quarter and I can't wait to crack the books. I'm not leaving Stanford University until they tell me I have to."
And with that, Harbaugh and Luck ran off across the field toward their fans, their teammates, and their shared future.
